Tales From The Borderlands: Side-Quest
by The Black Mage of Phantasm
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple task. Going back to Old Haven to get Vasquez's body and getting out was supposed to be a simple job. But no, instead Rhys and Sasha were now stuck in the city infested by psychos, now having to figure out some way to escape. Preferably with all their limbs and organs attached. Why couldn't anything on this planet be easy?
1. It Somehow Gets Worse

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands Or Tales From The Borderlands. All rights belong to the respective owners._**

 _The last time we left our heroes, they were at their darkest moments. Vallory and her men had cornered the salary-man and the con-artist, forcing them to take on what would likely be their last job. And now, They were currently discussing a plan to sneak onto Hyperion, our else they would die at the hands of Vallory. Most likely in the most agonizing and horrible ways possible. And that would suck. However, something seems... Different. As if our heroes have gone against fate and our now going down a little... Detour. Well, even heroes get taken on an unexpected journey. A side-quest, if you will._

 ** _Chapter 1: It somehow gets worse_**

 ** _"_** Wait a second."

"Hmm?" Rhys paused, raising an eyebrow at Sasha. He had just finished discussing the plan, and granted there were some flaws, okay a lot of flaws that could easily get them all killed, but it was still a good plan... Kinda. So what did Sasha want?

"So...How did you figure out the piece is in Jack's office?" Sasha asked, crossing her arms in front of her. Skepticism was visible in her voice as Fiona turned to look at Rhys.

 _"Oh crap."_ Rhys thought, fear beginning to rise inside him as he searched his mind for an answer that would satisfy Sasha's curiosity. He couldn't tell her the real reason, if he did it could ruin everything. He couldn't say that he knew because _Handsome Jack_ told him it was there. He couldn't let them know that he was inside his head, talking to him, well more accurately insulting him most of the time, and giving him advice as well allowing Jack to upgrade his systems. There was no chance in hell they would not freak out, and they needed to trust him now more than ever.

"Don't tell'em, princess!" From seemingly nowhere, the blue, holographic-like image of Handsome Jack appeared right in front of him. For once, he didn't have his trademarked smug smile, and instead his lips were in a firm frown. He disappeared out of existence from his spot and reappeared right next to Rhys. "You'll sabotage the whole freakin' mission!" He warned Rhys. Rhys knew Jack was right; he knew it was stupid to tell them. But still... He wanted to let them know. He wanted to say he had a voice inside his head... Okay maybe not using those exact words, but he wanted them to know what was going on. He wasn't going to lie, although he trusted Jack to a certain degree, he was still scared of the former Boss of Hyperion.

But he couldn't. Fiona and Sasha hated Hyperions already, they just recently started to warm up to him and Vaughn, and if he told them he had the guy who made Pandora a living hell was in his head, he doubted they would ever trust him again.

So Rhys did what he did best, using his mouth to get through his problems.

"Well, it took me a minute to search my memory files, but boom! Whaddyaknow? Right there all along." He said, hoping that would be a good enough answer for his two friends. Fiona looked like she somewhat believed him, but Sasha had her eyes narrowed at Rhys, and he could almost feel the doubt on her expression.

"Rhys, if there's something you need to get off your chest, we're listening," Sasha said, taking a couple of steps towards Rhys. "You gotta admit, it was pretty weird when you passed out after we left the security office."

"What we're saying is that even if we could figure out a way to undertake this mission, we need to know you're one hundred percent," Fiona said, raising a brow at Rhys.

"Which you're clearly not." Sasha said, and to Rhys, she was closer to the truth than he would have liked.

"Hey, you don't need to worry about me, okay?" Rhys said, giving them his best smile and trying not to let the fear and doubt show in it. "I know Helios like the back of my hand." The two siblings smiled slightly, but Rhys could tell they were still a tad unsure, and at that moment August and Kroger walked into the caravan.

"Which one jerk off? Ooh, actually I was wondering about. When you take care of business, do you use robo hand or your real one?" August asked, and Rhys glared at him, choosing not to answer that question and from the corner of his eye, he could see Sasha and Fiona adopt dopey smiles on their faces.

"All right, Vallory signed off on the plan. Fiona, you're coming with me to Hollow Point to get this thing spacey. Rhys and Sasha are going with Finch and Kroger back to Old Haven." August said, and Fiona and Sasha looked confused when he finished.

"Wait, why are you separating me and Sasha?" Fiona asked

"Vallory said she be an idiot to let you two stay together; she thinks you'll try to come up with some plan to escape. So instead she wants Sasha to go with mister roboto over here 'cause she thinks he's not very smart. And I agree." August explained, and Rhys felt annoyed at the insult. He wasn't an idiot, he just had a habit of talking too much and making himself _sound_ like an idiot. It was completely different from being an idiot.

Fiona and Sasha glanced at each other, reading the others expression. It wasn't like they had never been separated at all, multiple times in the past they had to stay apart for long periods of time to gather info on certain items while trying not to get killed. Hell, just recently Fiona let her sister go into battle with Vallory goons to save Rhys. So they were used to being in a variety of dangerous situations. But this time was different, this time they were being held at gunpoint by people who wouldn't hesitate to kill them in a second. So both were a little uneasy at the idea of not being able to watch each other's back.

"You gonna be okay Sasha without me to save your ass when you get into trouble." Fiona joked, a smile crossing her face. But one look at her eyes, and Sasha could see Fiona was more worried than she let on. She knew her older sister was protective about her, but she doubted anything would happen, she and Rhys were just going back to Old Haven, and there was nothing dangerous about the abandoned city. Well aside from the killer robots, but they already dealt with those.

"I think I'll be fine sis, we're just picking up a dead guy to steal his face." She said with a confident smile, but then she realized what she just said as her smile vanishes. "Wow, that sounded a lot less disturbing in my head then out loud."

Fiona laughed slightly before responding. "Just be careful okay?"

"Don't worry about me, but you may want to worry about Rhys." She turned her head towards Rhys. "No offense, but you kinda suck when it comes to fighting" Sasha said

"Hey!" Rhys shouted.

"You know it's true." A smirk crossed Sasha's face.

"All right enough chit-chat." August said gruffly. "You two follow Kroger to his car, Fiona we're going to Hollow Point now." Kroger opened the door to the outside and motioned them to get out. Rhys and Sasha did as they were ordered, and left the caravan.r

"I really hope that idiot doesn't get Sasha killed." August said.

"Don't worry, Rhys isn't as useless as he looks."

"That isn't saying much."

"I know." Fiona said. But really, what the hell could go wrong?

 _ **Tales From The Borderlands: Side-Quest.**_

The trip back to Old Haven was rather bumpy, Sasha and Rhys had their hands tied and were forced to sit outside the vehicle and ride on the trunk. Apparently, there was barely any room inside, or so Finch had told them. Really, it was probably because they wanted them to freeze from the cold winds, and get really irritated at all the coarse sand hitting them in the face.

"Well this sucks." Sasha said, turning to face Rhys.

"Yep." Rhys said. "Sitting out here getting hit by sand, having to work with Vallory or else we get shot, I don't think it can get any worse."

"Don't forget we have to break into Helios using your plan, which basically means there is a high chance of us dying." Sasha said, sarcasm rising in her voice.

"Hey its a good plan." Rhys defended. "It might be our only plan, but I'm sure we won't get shot at. At worst we might get stabbed." And the moment he said this, Sasha winced from pain, and Rhys remembered she literally was stabbed in the arm not even an hour ago.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry I completely forgot-."

"It's fine." Sasha interrupted. "I would want to forget I got stabbed by a psycho woman to, maybe then my arm wouldn't feel so bad." She gave a small chuckle, and their was an pause. Rhys didn't know why, but ever since they left the Atlas facility, he felt rather... Awkward around Sasha, like he couldn't help but feel nervous whenever they talked. Maybe it was just because he was stressed, he hadn't really had any time to rest since when they first got to the facility.

Wanting to break the silence, Rhys spoke again. "You think Vaughn's okay?" He asked.

Sasha took a second to think before replying. "He's a tough little guy, I'm sure he's fine. Besides, you heard the two idiots, he's with Cassius so at least he's not alone. So I don't think you have a lot to worry about." She smiled, and Rhys grinned in return.

"Thanks. You know-." Before he could finish, the car jerked to a stop. Rhys and Sasha weren't expecting this, so their bodies flew forward and their heads crashed hard against each other.

"Ahhh fuck!" Sasha shouted, she would have brought her hands to ease the pain in her forehead, but they were still tied up.

"Jesus that hurts!" Rhys also shouted. "Fuck, god that stings!"

Once the pain stopped throbbing in their heads, they looked up and saw they were at the entrance to Old Haven. They also heard the sound of the vehicles door opening as Finch and Kroger headed towards them. Kroger walked towards Rhys as he untied the ropes restraining him

"All right, here's how it's gonna go. The man with the plan right here is gonna track down the corpse." Kroger said, as Finch pointed his pistol at Sasha.

"And you, are staying right here." Finch said, but Sasha did not look the least bit worried.

"Aw, what's the matter, you scared I'm gonna make the other side of your face as ugly as my sister did." Sasha taunted with a large smirk, and Finch growled at the insult, bringing his hand to the burned side of his face, His grip on his gun tightened.

"Um, Sasha, I think you shouldn't insult the guy who's holding a gun to your face." Rhys said nervously, wondering what the hell was Sasha thinking.

"Oh don't worry Rhys, this guy has tried, and failed multiple times to shoot me, seriously your aim is almost as horrible as your hair." Her smirk grew larger as Finch was practically snarling at this point. One of the few things Rhys knew about this guy was that he was really sensitive about his hair, so he was really confused as to why Sasha kept insulting him and making him angrier.

"Hey man, calm down, she's just trying to piss you off." Kroger said, walking towards his buddy. He could care less about Sasha, but he sure as hell did not want to make Vallory mad, They needed her alive in order to get to the vault. If Finch killed her, then Vallory would do something far worse than both of them could imagine. Finch seemed to relax a little at his friends words.

"I don't see why you bother talking to this guy, he's such an idiot." Sasha interjected once more, and Finch was growling again. Rhys was now very fearful for Sasha as she continued insulting her captor. "No wait, you're something far beyond idiot, dumb-ass doesn't quite work, neither does ass-hat, Oh I know! How about-." Before she could finish, Finch shouted furiously and fired his pistol!

"Sasha!" Rhys shouted and his eyes widened the moment he heard the gun go off.

Thankfully, Kroger was able to push Finch's arm to the side so his aim was off, the bullet scratching Sasha's cheek before hitting their car instead of Sasha. Sasha was startled that the bullet had came so close to ending her, she had jumped from her seat on the car to the sand covered ground below.

"Man, what the hell is wrong with you!" Kroger shouted, as he took the gun away from his partner. "Do you know how pissed Vallory would be if she found out you killed her because she insulted you?"

"Come on man, let me shoot her please, just once." Finch practically begged. "How about in the leg or something."

while they were arguing, Rhys ran to check on Sasha. "You okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, Rhys." She answered, getting back on her feet, which was harder than usual since she was still tied up. "I've been through worse, I literally got stabbed in the arm a couple hours ago."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Rhys said as he smiled. Sasha gave Rhys a grin in return.

"Come on man, I'm begging you." Finch continued trying to convince Kroger to letting him shot Sasha.

"Look, normally I say go nuts, but you heard the boss lady, unless we have to we can't kill them, we need them in order to get the last piece." Kroger said, as he walked towards Sasha. He untied the ropes binding her as Finch looked confused.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Finch asked. "Why you letting her go?"

"I can't take the chance that you might kill her bro, besides do you really wanna deal with her shit talking while we wait for this guy." Kroger pointed at Rhys, and Finch shook his head.

"No." He muttered

"I thought so." Kroger then turned towards Rhys and Sasha. "Alright, new plan, you two go find Vasquez's body and bring it back here. And if you think you can escape, don't try it, 'cause then you may end up like Vasquez." He said with a sinister smirk

"Alright we get it. Don't do anything stupid, or else you're gonna put a lot of holes in us." Rhys said

"Well, actually I would use my knife to slowly cut you up, but you got the general idea." Kroger explained, before raising his newly acquired pistol, and firing at the ground where Rhys and Sasha stood. They jumped backwards as bits of sand and earth were kicked up from the bullet. "Now get to it, we don't got all day."

Rhys and Sasha glared at the two thugs before walking towards the entrance.

"Dick." Sasha muttered under her breath so only Rhys could hear.

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Rhys said, as he looked up at the entrance , a big wooden sign with the words "Haven" written on it attached to a large rather worn and decayed metal gate with two legs planted in the ground. There was even a big arrow pointing towards the town right next to the sign. But there was something else that Rhys found odd.

On the sign, there was what looked like blood splattered all over it. And it was scattered in such a way that it almost looked like some sort of demented painting. The sight made Rhys feel anxious, and he tried to ignore the oncoming paranoia that invaded his mind. It was nothing, he was sure that the blood had been there since before he and his friends first arrived.

And as he and Sasha walked deeper into the town, he missed how the blood dripped down from the sign onto the cold ground below.

 _ **Tales From The Borderlands: Side-Quest**_

The two had ventured further into Old Haven, and somehow it looked different then before. Maybe it was the fact that in the night, the deserted town looked more like a graveyard. The way the buildings seemed more corroded, the way the metals surrounding them fell apart and hit the floor, and the fact that there was a lot more skags around them made Rhys feel afraid. He was just glad that Sasha was here with him, otherwise he probably would have felt much worse without someone to talk to.

"So... Do you remember where exactly Vasquez's body was." Sasha asked, bringing Rhys out of his thoughts.

"Yeah, it's somewhere nearby where we exited from the Atlas facility." Rhys answered, as Sasha let out a sigh.

"You know, I never once in my life expected to go on some quest to retrieve a dead guy, and then use said dead guys face to get into Hyperion's main moon base." She said.

"Hey, think about it like this, when we're done here, we get to go into space. You can't tell me that isn't awesome, right?" Rhys said with a grin.

"Yeah, you're right, it is." Sasha said, there was a momentary pause before Rhys spoke again

"So back their with you insulting ugly Mohawk guy, did you do that on purpose?" Rhys asked

"Yeah it was. I figured if I pissed him off enough either his partner would let me go so they wouldn't have to deal with me, or I get shot in the head and die."

"Well, I'm glad your brain didn't get splattered all over the place."

"Yeah I'm glad to." She grinned before she turned her head and stared at a pair of skags chewing up the bloody remains of something. She really hoped that wasn't Vasquez. "Maybe we should split up, so we can cover more ground."

"Yeah that sounds good, only thing I'm worried about is getting attacked by some random monster or something." Rhys said.

"Oh don't worry, the skags usually eat things with a little more meat on their bones." Sasha said.

"Hey! I'm not that skinny." Rhys said, looking slightly offended.

"Whatever you say." Sasha went towards a nearby building and rounded the corner, vanishing from Rhys' sight off to search for the body. Rhys looked around the abandon city, realizing that Hugo's body had probably been moved by something, which now made his job a lot harder.

"Okay Rhys." He said out loud. "Let's just find Vasquez's body, get back here and hopefully not crap our pants." He let out a long breath before activating his echo eye. To Rhys his surroundings had been enveloped in a blue cloak made out of pure light. He eye scanned everything in front of him, telling him what exactly the objects were made of. From the broken satellite dishes, the piles of rubble from decaying buildings, to skag crap. Though he really did not need to see skag crap in high definition, he paused as he spotted something peeking from underneath a pile of scattered metal. It was an arm, specifically an arm covered in the same type of suit that Vasquez wore.

"Oh, hell yeah." Rhys said, smiling before walking towards the arm. He bent down and removed the metal covering it, and saw Hugo's body lying face down on the ground. When he looked over the body, he saw that the back of his head had several bald spots. as well as gaps in his skin that looked like holes from a wallet.

"Well, looks like Jack was right, you are a wallet head." Rhys chuckled before realizing that Sasha was still searching for Hugo. "Hey Sasha!" He shouted as loud as he could. "I found Vasquez, so lets hurry up and get out of here!"

He looked down at the corpse in front of him. "All right, wallet head, time to show your face back on Helios." Rhys said, before flipping over the body, but the moment he did so he saw the Vasquez's face had been removed! With the skin off, Rhys could see all of Vasquez's muscles, his eyeballs, and even his teeth in their horrific glory.

"Face! Face! His face has no face!" Rhys shouted, panic flooding his systems as he quickly stood up. It was at that moment that Sasha had come back to him.

"Rhys?" Sasha said, hearing Rhys' outburst as she got closer to him. "What's wrong-." Before she could finish, she saw Vasquez's body without its face as her eyes widened. "Holy shit!" She shouted in shock. "What the hell happened! Why is his face off!"

"I don't know!" Rhys shouted back, moving further from the body.

"Oh god." Sasha said, unable to pull her eyes away from the body. "That is disgusting, I never thought I see something more disturbing then my sister gouging someone's eyes out." Her face turned a little green.

"Oh god, his skin looks like someone took really nasty bacon and just started beating the shit out of him with it." Rhys said, looking like he might start hurling at any moment. Sasha didn't look any better, before punching Rhys in his arm.

"Seriously! You couldn't have phrased that any differently?" Sasha said, before staring back at the body with revolution in her expression. "Well, guess we have to find out where his face is. If it hasn't been eaten already."

"Yeah, you're right." Swallowing the vomit in his throat, Rhys looked around the corpse to see if there was anything to tell him where Hugo's face was. He got his answer in the form of a trail of blood leading away from Vasquez's body.

"Hey, I found something." Rhys said, crouching down besides the body. He lifted his mechanical arm before activating the light in the center of his palm. Sasha crouched down next to him to get a better look at the blood.

"Okay, something tells me if we follow the trail, we find the face." Rhys said.

"Well lets go then." Sasha said, before getting up and walking along the path of the blood. Rhys quickly got up and caught up with Sasha, using his hand to light up the trail. They walked into an alley, passing through several ruined buildings, abandoned vehicles, and even more blood paintings. They had turned down multiple alleys, and Rhys and Sasha noticed there seemed to be a lot more blood on the buildings then from before. As they continued walking, Sash turned her head towards Rhys.

"So you must be excited, you're going back to Helios, where you can get back together with all the scumbags you worked with. I bet this is a dream come true for you." Sasha said, a teasing grin on her face as Rhys smiled.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly in a rush to get back to Helios, considering the people down here are a lot nicer. And are not nearly as ugly." Rhys said.

"Aww thanks, good to know that I'm a nicer then the assholes who made Pandora a living hell." She joked, and Rhys laughed.

"Well, that isn't really saying much. I mean you're still-."

"Don't move!" Sasha shouted, interrupting Rhys who had paused mid step, one leg now lifted in the air.

"What? what's wrong?" Rhys asked, still not moving an inch. Sasha slowly pointed to the ground and Rhys looked down and saw a trip wire. It was directly below his foot, and if Sasha had not stopped him... Well, he be short one body.

"Okay, I now see why you stopped me, thank you for not letting my guts explode everywhere." Rhys said meekly, fear evident in his voice as he slowly and carefully placed his foot on the ground away from the wire. He then brought his other foot over the wire and when he did so without blowing up he let out a breath.

"How have you survived so long?" Sasha asked with a smirk

"Quite honestly, I'm just as surprised as you are I'm not dead yet." Rhys said, as Sasha hopped over the wire. "Seriously where the hell is the face..." Rhys didn't finish as his eyes were locked onto something in front of him. Sasha noticed this and looked up at Rhys' face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" She asked before following Rhys' line of vision, and her eyes were now glued to the scene in front of her. "Oh, crap."

In front of the two were a group of psychos, some on the craziest, unpredictable and most dangerous people on Pandora. They all had human faces over each of their masks, giving their already frightful appearance an extra layer of horror. Thankfully, most of them were fast asleep, but even while they were resting, Sasha and Rhys did not let their guard down. After all, a couple days ago another group of the insane bandits had almost killed them.

"Well, at least we know who took Vasquez's face." Rhys said, trying his best not to freak out. Sasha was doing about as well as Rhys, really wishing that Vallory had at least given her gun back.

"Okay, I don't suppose you have a way of finding the face as quickly as possible without waking up any psychos?" Sasha asked.

"Actually I might. That or I may just end up killing both of us. Not sure which." Rhys once again activated his echo eye, and once again the world turned blue. His eye scanned every psycho's human face mask, giving him some rather disturbing details about said psychos that he really did not need to see. After several seconds of searching he found the psycho with Hugo's face.

"Okay, I found the face. Now let's get it, get the hell out of here, and hopefully not die horribly." His voice wasn't very confident and was more scared then he had intended, but Sasha still nodded. They walked as carefully and quietly as humanly possible, tiptoeing passed the sleeping psychos, trying not to wake any of them up if they wanted to get out alive. Rhys at one point almost bumped into a psycho, but thankfully he notice just in time and stopped his shoe from hitting it.

They continued to walk, until Rhys signaled Sasha to stop once they had reach the psycho they were looking for.

"Okay, here it is." Rhys said. "Sasha, you got this right?"

Sasha raised a brow at Rhys. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know, can you um...Get the face off the psycho?" Rhys asked as politely as he could.

"What!" Sasha shouted, and when she did so, several psychos started stirring in their sleep. Rhys and Sasha stood perfectly still the moment they heard, not even breathing as the psychos mumbled in their dazed state. After a tense few seconds, they went right back to sleep. Rhys let out a sigh as did Sasha before she glared at him.

"What!" She said again, this time her voice barely above a whisper. "Why do I have to do it?!"

"Well, because-I don't know, you were born here so I figured this kind of thing wouldn't bother you." Rhys whispered with a sheepish smile.

"Of course this would bother me!" She whispered aggressively. "I don't exactly go around Pandora ripping peoples face off! Do I look like I'm some sort of crazy person?"

"Well..." Rhys trailed off, as Sasha's glare doubled in intensity. "Okay, I get it, I'm sorry." Rhys apologized, not wanting to piss off Sasha any more. "Look, I'll do it okay, if it will make you happy, I'll get the face." Rhys said, and Sasha looked less mad at his words. Rhys crouched down in front of the corpse as he stared at the Hugo's face, feeling incredibly disturbed just by looking at it.

"Alright, I'm just gonna... Peel of your face, and then throw up when we're no longer anywhere near here." Rhys said to Vasquez's face, looking like he was barely holding in his lunch.

"Just pull it off real quick." Sasha advised as she took a step back. "Like a bandage. A incredibly bloody, disgusting, horrifying, human face like bandage."

"You are not helping!" Rhys said as he turned his head to look at Sasha., before looking back at the corpse. Slowly, he raised his mechanical arm, grabbed a piece of the Hugo's face that was loose and not fully attached to the psycho, and carefully started to pull it off.

"Okay, I'm just peeling a face off-ugggh, trying not to barf, which is very difficult." As Rhys continued to pull off the face, bits of its skin was still left on the psycho's mask, and Rhys somehow felt even more sick than before.

"Oh god." Sasha said, covering her mouth with one hand. "I think I'm gonna hurl."

"Well, so am I, but let's try to hold it in until where a hundred miles away from these freaks." The face was almost completely off the psycho, and just as he was about to finally pry it off, it got stuck under the psychos mask.

"Oh no no no no." Rhys whispered meekly.

"What is it?" Sasha asked.

"The face is stuck in this guys mask." Rhys answered.

"Well can't you un-stuck it?" Sasha whispered frantically.

"I'm trying!" Rhys tried pulling harder, shaking the psycho's head slightly as he did so . Unfortunately, it was still stuck and the more he pulled the more he shook the psycho. "Come on, just a little bit more." With one last tug however, he was able to pull the face off and clutched it in his hand.

And the moment he did so, the psycho woke up.

"Smash the baby's face!" He shouted, standing up as fast as possible. "Crunch its teeth!"

"Ahhhh!" Rhys shouted in terror as he and Sasha moved back away from the psycho. Around them, more and more psychos were waking up and menacingly walked towards them. Now both them were walking backwards to distance themselves from the insane bastards.

"Don't panic." Sasha said. "Their's only a couple of them, maybe we can take them?"

It was at that moment, Sasha and Rhys heard demented shouting coming from above them. They looked up and saw dozens of Psychos on the roofs of the buildings surrounding them.

"Oh fuck." They both said, as the psychos jumped down from the roof and joined the group on the ground. Except for one guy who landed face first on the ground, and his blood and guts went everywhere. Now they were completely surrounded, the psychos advancing towards them as Rhys and Sasha walked backwards, getting closer to the wall behind them.

"Oh shit shit shit shit!" Rhys said, as he hit the wall with his back, Sasha and him now trapped with no way to get out. "We are so dead."

"Hold on, I've got a plan." Sasha said, before pointing in a random direction. "Look! Um.. A meat bicycle!"

"Meat bicycle!" The psychos all turned in the direction Sasha was pointing, as Sasha turned to Rhys with wide eyes.

"Run!" She shouted, before sprinting to the side where the psychos were not as packed together.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Rhys ran after Sasha, weaving through the psychos as fast as he could, making it through the crown of bandits just before they realized they were tricked.

"The meat bicycle is a lie!" Rhys didn't look back as he continued to run, sweat rushing down his head as moved through the buildings. He ran down the path, hearing the psychos catching up to him, and about ten feet in front of him Sasha was running as fast as possible. As he ran, he saw the trip wire from before and jumped over it, and continued running. Behind him he heard a big explosion and the sound of psychos screaming in pain. He turned his head back to see a cloud of black smoke spreading through the air, as well as a psycho jumping at him!

Rhys didn't have any time to react as the psycho tackled him to the ground. He landed on his back, the psycho trying to gouge his eyeballs, but Rhys held the psycho's arms back preventing him from advancing any further. He tried to push the psycho off him, but the bandit was strong as they continued to struggle for dominance.

"Torture is a milkshake I will shove down your throat!" The psycho shouted, slowly overpowering Rhys as his hands moved closer to his face.

"Sorry, but I'm lactose intolerant, so I can't have a milkshake!" Rhys fired back.

"That was lame!"

"Screw you!" Rhys brought his knees to his chest before kicking his legs at the psycho, nailing him in the stomach as he hit the ground. Rhys got up, but the psycho was quicker as it tackled him again, this time he landed on his stomach and the psycho was on top of his back.

"I will make shoes out of your organs!" The psycho was about to pummel him, Sasha came back and hit the psycho right in the center of his mask with her fist. The psycho tumbled on the ground, dazed.

"Get up, come on!" Rhys did as he was told, picking up Vasquez's face that ha had dropped in the skirmish, and started running again alongside Sasha. He looked behind him and saw dozens of psychos emerging from the smoke.

"We got to get the hell out of here!" Rhys shouted.

"Ya think!" Sasha shouted

They ran, turning around every corner, going down different paths in an attempt to lose the psychos, and they did. The psychos were no longer directly behind them, but they could hear them shouting, getting closer so they hurried to the entrance.

"We're almost there!" Sasha said.

They rounded a corner and saw the gate from a distance, as well as Finch and Kroger fighting off a large amount of psychos.

"Oh come on!" Rhys said as he and Sash kept running towards them. Finch and Kroger were being pushed back against their car, Kroger had shot several psychos, but one had got the drop on him and smacked him across the head with a rock.

"No!" Finch shouted, punching the offending psycho, before picking up his friend, barreling through the massive amounts of psychos surround him as if they were paper, and entered the car.

"He wouldn't?!" Rhys said, just as he heard the engines start. He and Sasha ran even faster now.

"He would!" Sasha said, just as Finch ran over the psychos banging on the car and drove off.

"Oh that motherfucker!" Sasha shouted just as they arrived twenty feet from the gate, as the psychos turned towards them, before releasing a demented battle cry and rushing at the two friends. They ran away, running back to the city.

"What now!" Rhys asked, clenching the face tightly in his hand.

"I don't know!" Sasha said, as the two ran closer to a set of buildings, two psychos tackled them, both hitting the ground hard.

"God dammit!" Rhys said, dropping the face as he quickly got up as did the psycho. "I really hate you guys!" Anger was coursing through him as he threw a hook with his metal arm at the psychos temple, knocking him out. He was surprised that he was able to beat the psycho in one punch.

"Get the hell off me!" Rhys turned and saw a psycho on top of Sasha. She was desperately trying to get it off her, but the psycho was grabbing the exact spot where Vallory stabbed her, as pain spread through her face.

"Get off her!" Rhys ran towards Sasha and kicked the psycho hard in his stomach. The psycho went into the air before hitting the ground, but it got back up and Rhys saw something strapped to his chest that made his eyes widened in horror.

A bomb.

A bomb was strapped to his chest, a trigger in his palm, and he was chuckling like a madman. "I will drink your eyes and wear your spleen as a crown!"

Rhys picked up Sasha from the ground and grabbed her hand. "Run!" He said, running to the right, the psycho right on their heels. They ran as fast as possible, the bomb psycho right behind them and the dozens more some twenty feet behind the first. They ran into a tight alley, panting as the psycho came closer and closer. They were halfway through the alley, jumping over any stray debris of rocks and metal from the two buildings around them. The psycho was getting closer, Rhys could almost feel its demented cackling. And just as they reached the end of the alley and turned, the psycho decided to ignite his bomb, and Rhys and Sasha were caught in the blast, the shockwave sending them flying.

Rhys felt his skin burn and his ears would not stop ringing as he hit the ground. Pain shot through his body, his vision was hazy and it felt like someone was slamming a bat against his head. Several cuts had decorated his body and his shirt, pants, and even his tie had been torn. He slowly got to his knees, coughing up blood as he did so. His vision no longer hazy, but the smoke burned his eyes and his mouth tasted like ash. he could see nothing but the black smoke surrounding him as he stood up. But one thing stuck out to him the most.

Where was Sasha?

"Sasha?!" Rhys shouted, coughing, and he tried to see through the smoke. "Sasha?!" He shouted even louder, turning his head in every direction trying to find his friend. He couldn't see any sign of her, and fear gripped every part of his body. What if Sasha had gotten hurt in the blast, what if Sasha...

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a low groan.

"Sasha!" He shouted, trying to find where the sound came from. He heard her groan again, but he still could not see her. It felt like he was running around in circles, and he couldn't see shit in this smoke. If only he could see-.

His eyes widened as he realized something. "You fucking idiot." He muttered to himself, before activating his ECHO eye. Now able to see through the smoke easily, and in seconds he found Sasha.

But he wished he didn't.

Sasha was on the floor, cuts covered her body, and blood pooled around her body as she laid on her side. Rhys felt pure dread overwhelm him, he couldn't breathe, his eyes locked onto Sasha's bloody form.

"Sasha!" He ran towards his friend, crouching down and flipped her gently onto her back. His eyes widened as he saw a jagged piece of metal piercing Sasha's abdomen, most likely ripped off from a building due to the explosion. He could tell she was breathing, but her breaths were very shallow. He heard more psychos screaming down the alley they came from, the only reason both weren't already getting mutilated was because the psychos had stopped running when the explosion had gone off, probably wary of more explosions. But in seconds they would be on him and Sasha in seconds.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck!" Rhys cursed, trying to figure out someway to get out of this situation. Smoke continued to fill up the alley, the psychos still screaming, and desperation flooding through Rhys like a river. He needed to save Sasha, but he had no idea what to do. No matter how hard he tried, there was only one thing he could think of.

That not only was he going to die but so was Sasha. And if by some miracle they got through this, Fiona was going to kill him.

 ** _Chapter 1: End_**

 **Author's note: This is another story idea I've had in my head for a while, so I finally decided to start writing it. I really love Tales From the Borderlands, it was an awesome game. This is also my second fanfiction ever so it may not be good at some points but I will improve. And also just to let you guys know, This is gonna be a Rhys and Sasha fic, but don't worry I'll make sure I do my best to make it great. And this story will be rather short, maybe less than eight chapters long.**

 **So if you guys have any suggestions, please let me know in the review section. Let me know what you liked or what you didn't like so I can make the next chapter even better. And if you can, please spread the word about this fic This is The Black Mage of Phantasm signing off. Peace!**


	2. Trying Not to Die

_**Chapter 2: Trying not to die**_

"You let my sister... Get impaled!" Fiona shouted, glaring daggers at the man sitting right across from her.

Rhys winced, wishing he could get up and run away from Fiona to avoid her wrath. But he couldn't, because if he did so, the stranger would most likely kill him on the spot. He wanted just to disappear right now.

"Um...Yes?" Rhys said timidly, phrasing his words more like a question as Fiona's glare doubled in intensity. He couldn't help but notice how similar her glare was to Sasha's. Not that it really mattered since something told him even if they got out of their captor's grasp, he would most likely get beaten to death by Fiona.

"Not cool, man." The stranger said, his voice modulator made his words come out as robotic and static like.

"That's an understatement," Fiona added, her voice full of anger.

"Hey, whats with all the hate coming my way!" Rhys shouted indignantly. "I'm pretty sure me and Sasha made it out alright, 'cause we met up with you guys again." He defended, before raising an eyebrow at Sasha. "And why do you sound so shocked?"

"Because Sasha didn't tell me she got impaled. She said that she was fine, that she barely got hurt in Old Haven, and clearly that was a lie." She was still glaring at Rhys as he wiggled awkwardly in his tape restraints

"Oooh... I see." He said. "Should have kept my big mouth shut."

"Yeah, you should have," Fiona said, acid practically dripping from her voice.

"Hey, it may be my fault that I let that happen to Sasha, but I still saved her from a bunch of psychos wanting to turn us into skin pizza." Fiona expression lost some of its fury, and Rhys felt a bit more relaxed now that she looked a little calmer.

"Your right, thank you, Rhys. It means a lot to me that you saved her."

"You're wel-"

"But I'm still beyond pissed at everything else you did." She interrupted, and Rhys frowned at her

"You know what Fiona, you can go shove-." The stranger lifted his gun up and fired into the air, hitting the ceiling above them and denting the metal.

"Both of you are getting sidetracked, don't forget why you're here. Or what I can do at any moment." The stranger cocked his gun before turning his head at Rhys. "Now, continue your story."

Instead of answering right away, Rhys instead looked away and glanced at the floor. Fiona was confused when she saw Rhys looked a little nervous, and for some reason was fidgeting slightly.

"Whats the hold up?" The stranger asked.

"Yeah um..." Rhys trailed off, before turning to face the stranger. "Do you think I can just... Skip this part."

Fiona looked at Rhys strangely, at Rhys swore that underneath the mask, the stranger was raising a brow at him. "It just um.. What happened to me and Sasha in Old Haven doesn't really have anything to do with getting Gortys her last piece. I mean at first it was, but then it turned into some kind of side adventure. If anything it will just waste more time that I'm sure you rather be used telling you just the important stuff." The stranger said nothing, only staring at Rhys through his single yellow eye on his mask. Rhys took his silence as a sign to continue.

"The only thing you need to know is, we were trapped in Old Haven, and we got out of Old Haven, with Vasquez in several pieces." He said, as the stranger still did not speak. Rhys wished he could tell what he was thinking behind his mask. "And then we went to space, and now tha'ts when shit started-"

"Wait a damn minute." Fiona interrupted again. "What else happened?"

"No-nothing happened Fiona, we escaped Old Haven, end of story."

"Maybe it's because you have the worst poker face I've ever seen, but something tells me you're lying." Fiona stared at Rhys with skeptic eyes, as Rhys glanced to the side to avoid her gaze. "Start talking Rhys. What happened?"

"I- it-noth- It's not important Fiona." He stuttered, and he could tell Fiona was growing more suspicious at his horrible attempts at dodging the topic. "Seriously, you don't need to hear this part."

"Yeah, I don't believe you. I don't think anyone would believe you, am I right?" She turned towards the stranger, who said nothing. "Okay ignore him, and just continue. What happened after you found Sasha?"

"Look even if I wanted to tell you, which I don't see happening anytime soon, I doubt this guy is going to let us."

"I'm fine with that." The stranger finally spoke,

"See, what I tell-." Rhys' eyes widened as he looked up at the stranger. "What! Why?"

"Let's just say, there are things I want to learn about you two through this story." He answered cryptically, making the two feel confused before he continued. "But before he starts, you." He looked at Fiona. "Tell me, from how this idiot has been talking, it sounds like him and his friend had to escape by themselves. Is that right?" Fiona nodded her head. "So why didn't you or your other friends try to go and rescue them? Surely Vallory's men came back and told you what happened?

"Oh, they did." She said. "And when they told me, I'm not gonna lie... I took the news surprisingly well."

 ** _Tales From The Borderlands: Side-Quest_**

"You cocksucking motherfuckers!" Fiona shouted and ran towards Finch and Kroger. She and August were in Hollow point when one of Vallory's men called and told her and August to return to the Atlas faculty. And when they had arrived at the snow-covered ground, right where Vallory had defeated her and Athena, Kroger and Finch had told her news that made her absolutely livid.

She had surprised not just the armed bandits surrounding her when she shouted and ran, not just August, and hell even Vallory, but also herself. She had never felt so angry at someone in her life, and now she was practically boiling with rage. Even when Felix had betrayed her, She didn't feel as angry as she did now, she mostly felt saddened by the fact someone she viewed as family had stabbed in her the back just for some cash. But this time was completely different compared to that moment, she didn't feel the least bit sad, she only felt absolute furry inside her. And it was all directed at the two men she was running towards who had told her that they had left her _sister_ for dead.

When she was close enough, she leapt towards Kroger, hands wrapping around his throat as they crashed on the ground, with Fiona on top of his stomach. She was now squeezing the mercenary's neck as hard as she could, His body flailing on the ground. He grabbed Fiona's arms and tried to pry them off him, but she had a death grip on his neck. He let out several weak gasps, his face starting to change color as he desperately tried to push Fiona off him.

"You left my sister and my friend behind! In a psycho infested city!" If it were possible, her grip became even tighter. "You fuckers are-!"

"Get the hell off him!" Finch ran towards his friend, tackling Fiona off him as they rolled on the ground. As they wrestled, Fiona was able to get Finch on the floor and herself on top of him when they stopped rolling. She then pulled back her arm before striking Finch dead center in his face with her fist, his glasses breaking as blood leaked from his nose. Before he could react, Fiona threw another punch, this one a hook and hit him across his cheek. Another blow across his opposite cheek sent his head whipping to the side as he spit out blood. Fiona didn't feel the pain in her fist, Finch's face was rather durable, she only felt how incredibly mad she was. Fiona would have continued... If she didn't feel cold steel touching the back of her head.

"If I were you, hun," Vallory said, pressing her gun harder against Fiona's head. "I'd seriously consider my position right now."

Fiona glanced around her and saw that all of Vallory's men were pointing their guns at her, surrounding her on all sides. Though her rage was still coursing through her, the calm part of her mind reminded her that if she continued, she would be dead in seconds.

"So, if you don't mind," Vallory asked in a sickly sweet voice. "Get the hell off my idiot."

Before she could respond, Finch quickly sat up and head butted Fiona as hard as he could, Blood leaking from her nose as she was launched of him and onto the ground. Finch had gotten up, looking pissed as he stood. "That it! I've had it with this bit-!"

"Finch!" Vallory shouted, and Finch stopped dead in his tracks. "Stop acting like a little bitch and suck it up."

"What!" He shouted. "But she-!"

"Are you actually complaining over her kicking your sorry ass when it's your own damn fault!" She shouted, giving him a smoldering glare, and Finch's face was the definition of pure terror. Her gaze then shifted to Kroger as he recoiled in fear. "I gave you two a job a monkey couldn't fuck up, yet somehow you two did! And now look at the shit you've gotten me into!" Vallory looked as if she was about to explode; Fiona saw Finch and Kroger look like they were about to piss themselves. Vallory pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh.

"Now, thanks to you two idiots, not only have we lost two of the most useful people to getting a vault, we have to figure out a new way to get the last piece." She motioned with her hand for Finch to leave. "Just get the hell out of my sight. If you don't, I can promise you I'll make your face uglier. I don't know how, but you should be worried that I will _try_ to." The amount of threat in her voice caused everyone of her men to gulp, even Fiona, as Finch shook his head in a fearful manner, walking away from Vallory. Though, as he walked he muttered, "I really hate that bitch" under his breath.

Fiona laid on the ground throughout the argument, her nose throbbing in pain as she reached for her hat that had been knocked off in the fight. She placed it on her head, wiping away the blood flowing from her nose as she slowly sat up. She was still having trouble taking in the news, still unable to believe that her Sasha and Rhys had been left behind in what was now one of the most dangerous places on Pandora. With no weapons, and facing an army of psychos. Her rage now almost gone, she felt an intense amount of worry practically overwhelm her. This situation was beyond bad, and the odds against Sasha and Rhys were ridiculously high, and none of their friends were there to help. She started to wonder if it was to late, if her sweet sister was already-

 _"Don't think like that Fiona!"_ She mentally scolded herself . _"Theres no way in hell they're dead!"_ Her sister and Rhys had been through shitty situations before, and gotten out just fine. Right now, she just had to have faith that they were alright, and would be okay until she arrived to help them get out of that city.

But then she remembered what Vallory had said...

"What do you mean "we have to find some other way to get the last piece." She asked Vallory, who glanced down at Fiona.

"Exactly what is sounds like Fiona." She answered coldly, then walked back towards her vehicle, her men stepping away from their boss so they wouldn't block her path. "Pack your things boys, we're leaving."

'What!" Fiona shouted. "You can't!"

"Oh, I most certainly can hun." She said, looking over her shoulder at Fiona as she stopped walking.

"You need us!"

"I need you like I need a bad case of herpes."

"We're the only ones who have a chance of getting to Helios! So you need to get your fucking men together, go back to that city and help them!" Fiona shouted, and Vallory gave her a cruel, short chuckle.

"Oh please, do you honestly think they're still alive?" Fiona gave Vallory her best glare, but she wasn't intimidated in the slightest as she continued. "I hate to burst your bubble honey, but they're dead, probably inside a psychos stomach by now. And even if they weren't, they won't stay that way for long. I'm not gonna send my men on some suicide mission just to go get a couple of corpses."

"You don't know them! They're some of the strongest people I know, if anyone can do it they can! If you don't wanna send your assholes to Old Haven fine! Just send me, I'll save them myself." She had no idea how she was going to do that, but she would find a way. Behind her shades, Vallory rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, no. I'm not letting one of the only people on this plant who has experience with getting these pieces go off to die." She started to walk towards her car again, no longer looking at Fiona. "Now why don't you stop your arguing and come with us to figure out a new plan. And you best not put up a struggle, or you and your robot friends might end up as decorations on the back of my car."

Fiona saw Vallory's men slowly moving towards her, pointing their guns at her and their fingers already on the triggers. Fiona had to act fast, at this rate, she was going to abandon Sasha and Rhys, leaving them to go god knows where with Vallory in some insane attempt to find another way onto Helios. Fiona refused to let that happen. She refused to leave the people she cared about like Felix did. So, with her brain running on overdrive, she came up with a solution.

"You seriously think you can think up a new plan!? Face it you old hag, its either you use our plan, or you'll never get to the vault!" Vallory stopped walking again and turned to face Fiona, even behind her sun glasses Fiona could see she was glaring at her. "Which means you need to go get Sasha and Rhys, or else this plan, your _only_ plan, is fucked." She stood up, as the men around her got closer, but they slowed down slightly, probably wondering how their leader would respond.

"Do you honestly call what that Hyperion stooge came up with a plan?" Vallory asked. "You'd have a better chance of teaching a psycho to talk like a sane person."

"Ma." August said, speaking for the first time since he had arrived. "She's got a point, its really the only way. We have to-"

"Shut up August." Vallory said. "Don't think I don't know the real reason you want to help save her sister." August glanced at the floor. "When you told me their plan, we both knew that the chances of them pulling it off were slim from the beginning. Now thats its gone to shit, we do what we should have done before, go back to our base and come up with something that will actually work."

"It will work! We'll make it work, like you said we've got the most experience getting these pieces." Fiona said confidently, and she could see through the men in front of her that Vallory was looking at her curiously. Just a little more and she might just convince Vallory. "All we have to do is get my sister and Rhys to get out of Old Haven with Vasquez's body, and we're good. We'll get the last piece, then will find the vault. I bet my life on it." Just as the men were about to grab her, Vallory spoke:

"Hold up." She ordered her men, and they immediately stopped moving. Vallory walked towards Fiona, her men moving aside as she was now inches away from Fiona. "Fine, we'll still do your original plan. We won't try to come up with any new plan, and we'll stay right here." Fiona immediately looked relived. "Well, for a certain amount of time anyway." Fiona raised a brow at Vallory, confused as she gave her a smirk. "Because neither my men or you are going anywhere near that town."

At her words, Fiona's rage came back instantly. "What!"

"Psychos are stupid, but even they know how to keep people out of their home. Just ask any of the people whose intestines they used as coats." She explained. "After Finch and Kroger left, they told me there were easily hundreds of psychos in the city. By now they've probably barricaded themselves in, and do you really think these idiots can take on an army of psychos? Do you think _you_ can do that?" Fiona said nothing, choosing to glare at the gang boss. "Thought so, but I'll make you a deal. I'll wait for those two, we'll all wait for your sister and your dumbass friend to return... For about half a day."

"Half a day!" Fiona looked like she was about to pounce on Vallory, but she brought her pistol out and aimed it at Fiona.

"Yes, half a day, after that, well, I think it will be obvious that they're no longer breathing wouldn't you say?" Fiona was almost snarling at the woman in front of her. "Oh come on Fiona, this is me being nice. We can't help them, unless of course you want to get murdered in seven different ways. Which means they're on their own, and they're gonna have to fight psycho after psycho, with no weapons, so the chances of them making it aren't very good. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here, and me staying here is quite literally the only smart thing to do. After all, even if they escape I highly doubt they'll be able to find us if we leave."

Fiona wanted to scream; she wanted to hurt Vallory so badly, all she could think about was letting all her anger out as she ended her. But she didn't, if she did she would be shot be either her of all the men surrounding her. Fiona also knew that this was all Vallory was willing to do, she couldn't be persuaded to do anything else for Rhys and Sasha. So she swallowed her rage before speaking, trying her best not to lash out at Vallory.

"They'll be here. I can promise you that." She said through her teeth, as Vallory turned and walked away from her.

"We'll see." She then looked towards all of her men. "Boys, you best get comfortable, cause we're staying here for the night. Make sure that are guest don't try anything stupid." The gang members proceeded back to their vehicles, most likely to rest until Vallory told them other wise, leaving Fiona alone as she clenched her fist.

"Bitch." She muttered.

"Fiona?" Hearing a squeaky, female, robotic voice she turned around and looked down to see Gortys. The tiny robot looked incredibly worried, and behind her Loader Bot, through his one mechanical red eye, also seemed a tad anxious. Though it was hard to tell since his face was not as expressive as Gortys. Fiona had almost forgotten they were here. "Are Rhys and Sasha gonna be okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, of course they will be." She crouched down to Gortys' height and smiled, hoping to ease the robots nerves. Or whatever robots had that qualified as nerves.

"It's just, they're alone against a bunch of bad guys, and Loader Bot' has told me the chances of them making it are less than ten percent." Fiona gave Loader Bot a harsh glance, as he looked away from Fiona. "And we can't help them, so I'm really scared right now. Do you think... they might not make it?"

"Hey, don't talk like that." She tried to reassure. "We're team awesome; we can kick anyone's ass if we wanted to. And Rhys and Sasha are stronger than a couple of freaks with weird masks. So relax, They're gonna be fine and be back here in no time." Gortys seemed to ease up at her words, even smiling faintly.

"Yeah, you're right." She said, and Fiona looked over the horizon where Old Haven was. She was hoping that Sasha and Rhys were okay and that they would get out.

 _"Try not to die, guys."_ She thought, and prayed that she get to see her sister again. _"Rhys, please protect my sister."_

 _ **Tales From The Borderlands: Side-Quest**_

 _"Fuck, god dammit! Fucking hell!"_ Rhys screamed inside his head, as he looked down at his friend. Blood was dripping from her wound onto the dirty ground below, and smoke from the explosion had now covered the entire alley they were in. It burned his eyes and the cuts that were scattered about his body, and when breathed in the air he coughed violent and his mouth tasted like gas, but he barley noticed. All of his focus was on Sasha, and the jagged metal embedded in her abdomen. He heard the psychos screaming their insane gibberish, still unsure if it was safe to go down the alley and then towards him and Sasha. It was the only thing saving him right now, the psychos stupidity. But still he needed to do something fast, Sasha was injured and he wasn't sure how badly, how breaths were coming at as raspy wheezes. And soon the psychos would realize it was safe and come at them any moment now.

"Come on you shit head, think of something!" He said to himself, looking around with his ECHO eye activated he was able to see through the smoke and examined all of his surroundings. He saw the two sides of the buildings around him, discarded pieces of metal, and rubble from the buildings but he couldn't find anything useful! At this rate, they would be dead in minutes! He looked down back at Sasha, Even while she was unconscious, her face looked like it was in pain. She seemed so helpless, and Rhys needed to do something to help her. He wasn't going to let her down, not when she needed somebody the most.

He looked around again, wondering what the hell he should do. He could try running away while carrying Sasha down the alley, but he might make her injuries worse. He had to treat her wounds quickly, but he couldn't do that if he was being torn apart by psychos. Rhys was becoming more frantic as he heard the psychos screams get even closer, they were slowly walking down the alley the explosion occurred in. He was now growing more and more angry, at himself for his inability to help Sasha, and at the situation they were in. Why was it that everything on this planet seemed to want to kill every-!

He paused, as his eyes were now focused on one spot that was covered in the blue veil of his ECHO eye. It was a window on the building, more accurately a window that had all of its glass shattered and was only barricaded with several boards of wood. It looked big enough for a person to squeeze through if you removed the boards.

"Thank you, Jesus!" Rhys shouted, running towards the window as he coughed slightly from the smoke. Once he got to the window, he grabbed one of the boards and tried to pry it off; however, it was bolted firmly in place and proved to be difficult to remove.

"Ugh, come on Rhys you can do this." He pulled harder, placing one leg against the wall for leverage, and the board slowly came loose. "Oh my god, how weak are you?" He pulled with all his might and finally, he removed the wooden board from the window! He chucked it aside, now only having to get rid of two more boards. The psychos were getting closer, almost down the alley they came from. In seconds they would turn and be upon them, see he had to hurry the hell up!

With adrenalin pumping through his blood, he grabbed the second board and was able to pry it off far more easily than the last one. He heard the psychos now laughing like mad men; they were almost here! He threw the board onto the floor and grabbed the last piece blocking the window, and just as he removed it, he saw multiple psychos turn into the alley he and Sasha were in!

For a moment, he thought they were dead. He thought the psychos would kill him in every agonizing way possible, and then do the same to Sasha. But, as the psychos filled the alley, snarling like dogs and shouting incredibly messed up jokes, they didn't seem to notice Rhys. Like they couldn't see him. It was then he remembered the smoke that had filled up the alley, and the only reason he could see in front of him through the thick, black, smog was because of his ECHO eye. Which meant that these psychos were basically blind, as the they spread out through the alley trying to find the two people who had escaped them.

 _"All right Rhys, they can't see you, but you can see them."_ A psycho had almost walked into him, but he side stepped away from him. _"Which means that so long as your quiet, and don't fuck up, you can get inside that window, and then figure out someway to fix Sasha up."_ With a semi-formed plan in mind, Rhys moved as quietly as he could, taking careful and slow steps towards Sasha's unconscious body, trying his best not to bump into any psycho. After tip-toeing a short distance, he had gotten to Sasha, and had then crouched down.

 _"_ I got you, Sasha." He said, his voice quiet enough so only Sasha would hear if she was awake that is. He slipped a hand underneath Sasha's knees and his other one under her back. Rhys slowly carried her from the ground into his chest, making sure to move her as little as possible so he wouldn't aggravate her wounds. Once he had a good grip on her, he stood up, moving his arms under her back to better carry her and walked through the smoke towards the window.

He made sure to look in every direction, took slow steps, and was as silent as the night as he carefully maneuvered pass the psychos in the alley, who still could not find him. One psycho was walking to the right into Rhys path, but he stopped moving and let the psycho pass him, making sure he was a safe distance away before he continued. Another Psycho was heading straight towards him, but Rhys was able to circle around him. He was only a couple of feet away from the window, when a psycho had bumped into him from behind with its back.

He froze, fearing this might be it, all the psycho had to do was turn and he would be dead, and then the psycho spoke. "Sorry fellow intestines lover, I can't see through this black smoke that taste so good." he said, before he walked off without turning around to see who he had crashed into. For a moment, Rhys couldn't breathe, but after several seconds he let out a sigh before walking and finally reaching the window. It was about chest height, so Rhys had to carefully, and difficulty, place one leg on its sill, and then pull both himself and Sasha onto the ledge. When he was on the ledge, Rhys rotated his body so that both his legs were inside the building as he looked down onto the floor below. Their were a lot of crates directly underneath the window, so Rhys dropped through the window onto the boxes. Now that he was inside the building he let out another sigh.

"Okay Rhys, you got inside. And hopefully, the psychos won't notice you and Sasha are here." He said as he stepped down from the crate with Sasha still in his arms, moving away from the window to make sure once the smoke cleared from the alley the psychos would not see him or Sasha. He looked around to see exactly where he was. The first thing he noticed was that the building smelled like pure shit.

The second thing he noticed, was that building itself was decayed and filthy, their were cracks everywhere and the metal pillars that were scattered throughout looked incredibly rusty, the ceiling they connected to just as corroded. Pipes hung from the roof and certain parts of the wall. The floor itself was almost entirely covered in dirt, and was also covered in some sort of brown liquid Rhys did not want to know what. The walls also seemed to be made out of metal, but unlike the pillars and pipe they were devoid of any rust, though their were some holes in certain places. Their was also several patches of blood on certain areas as well as more crates. As Rhys continued to look around the wide open room he was on, he noticed that their were several more windows on the floor, but thankfully most wore boarded up with a lot of wood.

Rhys continued to walk, his feet making ripples as he stepped in the water, traveling a short distance until he found a spot on the floor that wasn't dirty, which happened to be under another boarded window near some crates. He placed Sasha down on the rough concrete, and examined his friend. His ECHO eye couldn't see her organs, so he didn't know how deep the metal went inside her, but even without it he could tell Sasha was bleeding badly from her stomach. He needed to do something fast, but he didn't have any medical supplies to help her. He looked around the room and his eyes were locked onto a crate in front of him. Maybe one of the crates had something he could use to treat Sasha.

"Come on Rhys, there has to be something you can use here." He looked at one of the crates, and he now noticed that it was very old, the wood looked very feeble and had mold growing in certain spots, and removed the top. And he was then hit with an even worse aroma than the first.

"Aggggh, what the hell is that." He looked at the contents of the crate, and saw it was full of spoiled and rotten fruit and meat. It was disgusting, the skin of all the fruit and meat had turned green and Rhys was feeling a little nauseous at the sight. "Oh god, that reeks." He placed the top back on the crate, and moved a couple of feet to the next one. He removed the top, and once again his nose was hit by a god awful stench.

"Oh come on!" He almost shouted, not wanting to wanting to alert any near by psychos. "What is it this time?" He looked into the crates... Only for his eyes to widened as he jumped back away from the crate. Inside, the box was filled with severed limbs! Most had their flesh rotted away, and their was a swarm of flies eating away at the limbs. To top it all off, the limbs were covered in their own blood, and the sight made Rhys feel like hurling.

"Why! Just why!" He quickly grabbed the top and immediately put it back on the container. Rhys figured that this part of the building most be where the psychos put some of their supplies, as well as their victims. Though, it looked like they didn't use this place often, considering that this place looked like no one had been here in months.

"Dammit!" He kicked the box as hard as he could as he pulled his hair. He searched through another crate, more expired food, then another crate, this time, severed heads. Crate after crate, Rhys looked for something helpful, but most were empty while some had more food and even more human bodies. He had walked all over the spacious floor and had found absolutely nothing.

"Motherfucker!" He slammed the top of one box back on and placed both his hands on the crate as he slumped forward. "Dammit, why is their so much useless crap in here!" There was one last box he hadn't check yet, and if it didn't have any medicine, Sasha might not make it.

"God, if you're up their, please let there be something in this crate that is actually helpful." He said as he approached the last container. He grabbed the top and slowly took it off, and inside the box their was a first aid kit.

"Oh, thank you, god!" He reached in and grabbed the kit; he saw it had a little smiley face on it as well as a streak of blood that ran diagonally across the surface. He looked inside and saw that it was fully stocked. He rushed towards Sasha limp form and crouched down. He removed her jacket, which had her own blood on it, to better treat her. Leaving her in just her white top, jeans, and googles.

"Okay Rhys, you've got this." He tried to reassure himself, though he was still unsure. He looked at the piece of metal piercing Sasha, and slowly reached for it. He needed to remove it to properly treat Sasha. He had to be extremely cautious about this, he couldn't risk any mistakes. He wrapped both of his hands around the jagged metal, and slowly began to pull it out. Sasha groaned in pain and Rhys winced, feeling awful he was causing Sasha pain.

"Sorry Sasha, but it'll be over in a second." He continued pulling the sharp metal out of Sasha body, and she whimpered slightly, the metal almost entirely removed. With one last pull, he was able to get rid of the metal completely as blood flowed freely from Sasha exposed wound.

The next few minutes were a blur for Rhys. His hands were moving at rapid speeds, cleaning Sasha's wound, wrapping bandages around it, all while hearing the psychos outside shouting, moving around thebuilding trying to locate them. Finally, he had finished wrapping the bandages on her stomach and had stopped her bleeding. She would be fine, sore as hell and more than likely a little pissed, but fine. He let out a breath, as he sat down on a crate. Glad that at least one danger was over. He still had Sasha's jacket in his hand before he folded it and placed it right next to him on the old box.

"How did getting a dead guy turn into us fighting for our lives." He asked himself, as he looked around the room. From behind the boarded windows, he could see the shadows of the psychos leaking into the room, as they continued their search. He was worried that the psychos were so close to them, but he tried to remain calm.

"You've saved yourself and Sasha from becoming a bunch of severed body parts, now you've got to figure out some way to get the hell out of this city, overrun with god knows how many psychos. No problem whatsoever." He put his regular hand against his forehead as he groaned. "Yeah, except for the fact that their is a better chance of a snowball being thrown in hell, than of us getting out of here."

He glanced down at Sasha, who was now breathing normally, and looked her over. For a girl who just got impaled a couple of minutes, she was holding up rather well. Still, she looked weak, her face was a bit pale, and she seemed to have all of her energy drained out of her body. Rhys thought She looked so... Fragile, a word he never would have thought would be applied to the feisty, hot headed Pandoran girl. He never would have thought that their would be a situation where Sasha was the one relying on _him_ to help her, and not the other way around. She and Fiona had saved his ass so many times, they seemed almost unstoppable.

And now it was his turn to save Sasha.

"Alright Rhys, for once you've got to protect Sasha, and not be the lame idiot you usually are." He said, determination growing inside him. "You're gonna find some way to get out of this hellhole, and nothing is gonna-."

"Hey there cupcake." All of a sudden, Handsome Jack had appeared right in front of Rhys, standing tall as he had his arms crossed behind his head.

"Gaaah!" Rhys jumped back in fear from the box at the sudden appearance of Jack as he fell down and crashed into a puddle of muddy water. "Oh, gross."

"Oh god, that shit looks nasty." Jack laughed, pointing a finger at Rhys as he slowly got up from the puddle.

"Yeah, laugh it up asshole." Rhys said, trying his best to shake his clothes dry, it worked slightly, but he still felt the water in his shoes. "To what do I owe this incredibly bad timed visit?" He asked.

"Hey no need to get testy, I'm just having some fun." He walked towards Rhys, going straight through the box as if it wasn't their. "But I kinda get why your a little upset, what with an army of psychos right outside your doorstep. Never thought getting wallet head's corpse would be so dangerous, huh?"

"Yeah, needless to say, this was a lot more difficult than I thought, and more than a _little_ stressful," Rhys said, his voice held a slight edge to it. "I still can't believe things went to hell so fast. Where the fuck did all these psychos come from?"

"Well, thats Pandora for you, it always finds some way of completely fucking up your plans. I mean, look at me." Jack said, placing his hands on his blue body. "And to answer your second question, these little monsters probably saw how an entire city literally just appeared and thought "Hey, lets turn that shit into our hangout", or something like that." Jack explained as Rhys sat back down on the crate. Jack noticed the cuts that decorated Rhys' body. "I see they messed you up a little."

"Yeah well, surprisingly escaping from hundreds of psychos is not as easy as it sounds." His voice was full of sarcasm as Jack disappeared then reappeared sitting down right next to Rhys on the crate. Rhys then raised a brow at the Jack. "I'm kinda surprised you didn't try talking to me at all when we first got here."

"Well, you seem to be unable to grasp the concept of whispering when you talk to me, so needless to say I didn't want to risk you revealing my existence to your gun loving friend." Jack explained, before glancing down at Sasha's unconscious form. "But, I see that won't be a problem for now."

Rhys eyes gained a sorrowful look. "Yeah."

"Sorry about your girlfriend man. It always sucks when psychos hurt the people you stick your tongue in."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I meant the girl who you want to make sweet love to. Whats the right term for that? Sex buddies?" Jack placed a had under his chin as he seemed to be thinking seriously about his own question. Rhys pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation.

"Look is there a reason you're bothering me right now?" Rhys asked, and Jack turned his head to look at Rhys.

"I'm just wanna make sure my buddy's okay, that all." Jack answered, giving Rhys a big, confident, smile. "And to make sure he has a plan to get out of this mess that doesn't end with him as a psychos dinner."

"Well, right now, the only plan I have is... To come up with some way to get me and Sasha out of here." He admitted, looking away from Jack.

"Wow, great plan." He said sarcastically. "And what about Vasquez?"

"What about him?" Rhys asked, confused as to why Jack was bringing up his former boss.

"How are you gonna get his body?" Jack continued

"That doesn't really matter now, right now I just want to get out of here with Sasha." Jack sighed as he placed a hand on his head. "What?"

"Dumbass, do you really think Vallory is gonna like that you two didn't bring back Vasquez." Rhys was about to respond, but paused, letting Jack's words sink in. Slowly he realized he was right, Vallory would probably be pissed at them for not getting the body, even though they were fighting for their lives and had enough trouble. His eyes widened as he realized that their was another problem he had to solve amongst the shit ton of other problems.

"Fuck me." He said, slumping forward as he put both hands on his head. "We have to get the body. And the face I dropped God knows where."

"Yeah, we really do." Jack agreed. "I mean, even if she was cool with you not having the body, do you really think that you'll be able to get back into Old Haven once you leave?" Rhys shook his head sideways. "Thought so, which means this is our one chance Rhys, if we don't get wallet heads body now, we're beyond fucked. This is quite literally our only chance to get to Helios. We don't get the body now, we'll never get to the Vault of the Traveler."

"Great." Rhys muttered. "How the hell are Sasha and me gonna get through all this shit."

"If I were you princess, I start solving some of these problems now. I don't think a girl who just got impaled is gonna be much help for a while." Jack pointed at Sasha with his thumb, and Rhys knew he was right. It would be for the best if he figured out a way to get out of this city before she woke up

"Where the hell do I even start?" He asked Jack, as the once most terrifying guy on Pandora gave him a sly grin.

"Well, the first thing you want to do is find some way of getting out of this building. I suggest you try going to the roof of the building."

"All right, that sounds-." Before he could even finish, he heard a loud crash from behind him. He turned around and saw that someone was slamming into one of the boarded up windows.

"Oh shit." Acting quickly, he hid behind the crate as he peaked his head over the box. On one of the far sides of the wall, a psychos hand had pierced through the boards of wood right before his entire body leapt through the window, destroying the boards into pieces as he landed in the muddy water. "Find the flesh bags! Look everywhere!" Two more psychos had entered through the broken window, now there were three psychos inside the room.

"Fuck, are you kidding me!" He whispered harshly to himself as he hid back behind the box. He glanced at Sasha, who was still unconscious then to Jack.

"Any ideas?" He asked

"Give me a minute." Jack answered, as Rhys heard the psychos walking on the water, snarling as they spread out to look for him.

"I don't think we have a minute." He said, racking his brain to try and come up with a solution. All while cursing his luck, wishing he was anywhere but here.

 _ **Chapter 2: End**_

 **Authors note: So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and a shout out to all the people who read, reviewed, and faved the first chapter. Once again tell me what you like and what you didn't like in the reviews so I may improve. Also, the next update may take a little while longer than this one, I hope you can bear the wait. And if you can, please spread the word about this fic. This is The Black Mage of Phantasm signing off. Peace!**


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